Recent reviews by RemyLabue

The age-old argument as to whether games can be justly referred to as art has already been won, and any gamer would defend the industry in that respect. However, it's always nice to see games release that further enforce that ideal, and no other game released in 2014 embraces that ideal more than Transistor. Supergiant hit it out of the park with this title, and once again proved that games can be more than just pure entertainment. They can challenge us intellectually and philosophically. They can inspire spiritual debates, and even make us question our own existence as much as any other medium can, and in some cases, even more so.

On its surface, Transistor is a game about survival and revenge. Surviving the coming onslaught of the Process, a mindless virus destroying the virtual world of Cloudbank, and avenging the loss of your voice, not to mention the death of your one true love. Peel back that layer however, and just like any other great work of art, there are many more layers to be discovered. The depth and careful attention to detail in this masterpiece is there for those who pay attention, and if they do, they will experience something truly spectacular that will change the way they approach video games in the future.

As the name suggests, Cloudbank is a virtual city, one ruled by its citizens. Just like any other city, there are scientists, musicians, artists, and sports players. All significant decisions that affect the citizens are put to a vote at kiosks. Changes in aesthetics, buildings, weather, even the color of the sky itself, are all decided in this manner. This is an issue for a handful of usurpers scheming in the shadows however, claiming with conviction, that when everything changes, nothing changes.

You play as Red, a famous musician in Cloudbank, who unfortunately for her, is also a popular voice in the social hierarchy of the city. It seems that there is a group of people who are unhappy with the current state of Cloudbank, and they want to change it, by resetting it. The Camerata, as they call themselves, seek out the popular voices to assimilate them into a Transistor so that they can give the citizens what they don't even know they want. This will be useful once the Process finishes destroying the current version of the city, and the Camerata take control of version 2.0. Of course, this brings about interesting questions concerning what the collective thinks versus the individual, and the merits of socialism.

The Camerata's plans hit a snag when Red's lover sacrifices himself to protect her, which results in the terrorist group losing the Transistor. Thus, the primary weapon of the enemy becomes a tool of self expression for Red, something a mute desperately needs. With it, Red is able to collect the consciousness of citizens who have already fallen victim to the Process, and unlock Functions for her to use to protect herself from the same fate.

These Functions are the foundation of the attack system. Each one has a primary attack, secondary attack, and a passive attribute to be strategically utilized in battle. Combining them in different ways provides you with an almost unlimited amount of customized attacks at your disposal. Experimenting with these Functions feels like a practice in programming, with the names mimicking those in existing development frameworks. The attacks can be triggered in real time easily enough, but the real fun is entering a Turn state, which essentially pauses the action long enough for you to plan out your moves in advance, and then ending the Turn state will allow you to watch them play out. One of my absolute favorite functions provides a passive ability that gives you a small chance to evolve into a 'Super User' when entering a Turn state. If this occurs, you can basically nuke the Process into oblivion, de-rezzing them TRON style. The developers encourage you to try out as many combinations as possible by unlocking more background information on the citizens of Cloudbank for using the Functions in different ways.

You will have plenty of opportunities to research these Functions by locating a 'Back Door', which grants you access to an administrative area of Cloudbank, which is full of challenges for you to complete. I recommend you take the time to complete these, since they will improve your skills exponentially. Practice makes perfect, and you can never have too much of it. You can also listen to Transistor's soundtrack here, which is absolutely brilliant, and I cannot stress that enough.

As great as the primary game mechanics are, the little details are what makes Transistor really shine. The commentary from your lover coming from the Transistor, for example. Character development is hard enough, but when the protagonist is mute, it's even harder. Supergiant did a fantastic job of pulling it off nonetheless. There's a flourish control that makes Red throw the Transistor up into the air and catch it before coming back down, which serves no purpose except for looking cool. You can also stop what you're doing at anytime and hum, which allows Red to dance with her lover's new shell and hum to the tune of the soundtrack currently playing. The backgrounds you unlock by experimenting with the Functions give you details on the lost citizens of Cloudbank, some of which are subtly implied to be LGBT is some way, which is not central to the story, and is entirely optional. It's nice that these kinds of details were considered, and every game would improve with such features.

Transistor never overstays it's welcome, and if the first playthrough wasn't enough time to spend in this amazing world, a game+ mode is available as well as difficulty modifiers similar to those found in Bastion, providing plenty of excuses to return to Cloudbank.

The story takes multiple turns before you reach the climax, which will hit you square in the gut to great effect. All the while exploring themes such as socialism, religion, death, love, revenge, sacrifice, and the afterlife in a postmodern cyberpunk setting. College level dissertations can be written using Transistor as a focal point, and that is an incredible accomplishment by the developers. Every time you play this game you'll discover a new layer you may have missed the last time through. Everything about this game is subtle, the story, the characters, and the themes, allowing the players to decide what to take away from their time in this world. It never feels as if Supergiant is using Transistor as a soapbox to shove their own agendas down our throats, which games this deep tend to do.

Not only is Transistor one of my favorite games of all time, I would go as far as to say it is my personal pick for Independent Game of the Year, if not decade. I would have gladly paid three times what they are charging for this game without regret, so if you're on the fence about spending $20, don't be. The soundtrack is also available on Steam for $10, which is easily worth it. The tracks carry some emotional weight though, so the developers have explicitly stated that experiencing them in the game first is ideal, and I would have to agree.

The primary objective of a simulator is to accurately recreate the feeling and control of completing an existing real world task, like driving, managing, farming, dating, etc. Obviously, not all real world tasks are entertaining, in fact, most are repetitive jobs you work day after day for a paycheck. The draw of a well made simulator is the ability to experience a career virtually that you may never have the chance to experience in real life. Sometimes this can be interesting and educational, sometimes a lot of fun, and sometimes extremely boring. It's up to the individual to decide if the simulator is fun or repetitive, which makes this genre extremely difficult to review. Do I review it based on its entertainment value alone, or how accurately it depicts the task it's trying to recreate?

The focus of this particular simulator is in the title. At the start of each job you are provided with a work order explaining what the issue is, and it's up to you as the mechanic to resolve the issue as best as you can. Generally this requires you to remove and check individual parts, and replace the ones that are damaged. If you don't know anything about cars it can be difficult to locate the issues at first, but once you fix the first ten cars or so you'll know exactly where to look for the problems and how to fix them.

Don't worry, there is no time limit or grading system to worry about here. Each job takes however long you need it to, so you never feel rushed or stressed. In fact, later on the game feels entirely too easy, since turning off the body model of the car grants you immediate visual access to most parts, and the ones that are in bad shape stick out like a sore thumb with a very different texture than the rest.

Locating and resolving the issues is very enjoyable. Removing and replacing the individual parts is very intuitive and even a little educational if you have zero experience with fixing cars. The models are easily recognizable, even though the vehicles are generic due to licensing constraints. There's even a radio in your garage to listen to while you work, though I hope in the future they provide a way to point it to your own music directory. You really do feel like a professional mechanic, which is the most important thing when developing a simulator.

As you progress through the 70+ jobs that come with the main campaign, you'll unlock new garages to work in with new tools such as the Path Tester, Workbench, and Chip Tuner. The interesting thing is, you don't really feel like you own the garage, even though it's implied. Each car that comes in is paid for in advance and you have to fix the problems as cheaply as possible to profit. Not being able to set your own prices or contact the customer after inspections seems like a missed opportunity here. There are zero management duties when it comes to running the garage. No rent or utilities payments to make, employees to manage, cleaning to be done, inventory to take, or anything else that comes with running a business like this. Car Mechanic Simulator is very focused on the act of fixing cars, and little else. That can be a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for, but personally, I hope that these aspects will be added in later updates.

Features such as the OBD Reader and Obstacle Course seem more like novelties than required mechanics. Neither helps with diagnosing the issues with the cars, but both were required on multiple occasions for completing a work order, which is a shame. Providing more feedback from these features in the future would go a long way to improving on this idea. Even having your character mutter to himself while driving about how the car is handling would be a fantastic addition.

Car Mechanic Simulator feels like a great base for what will eventually become a fantastic simulator. I feel that the developers are on to something special, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for this franchise. If you are even a little interested in working on cars, but don't have the money, energy, or are generally against getting covered in grease, then look no further. With multiple free add-ons, and an endless mode, you'll get hundreds of hours out of this title. It does a great job of simulating the act of working on cars, so in that respect, it succeeds in its primary goal. As far as the entertainment factor is concerned, I'll let you be the judge.

Frederic: Evil Strikes Back is the sequel to one of my favorite rhythm games of all time, Resurrection of Music. If you haven't yet read my review on that game, take a minute to do that now.

RoM was a fantastic game for many reasons, the most important of which is the music. Carefully remixing select compositions from Chopin's work was a stroke of genius, and was the heart and soul of an amazing experience that should not be missed. If you haven't yet played it, you are missing out on something really special. So the sequel should be another masterpiece, right?

It is with a heavy heart that I have to condemn this game for what it is. What made the first game special, the music, is why the sequel falls flat on its face. Take the heart and soul from a work of art, and you're left with an unrecognizable shell, feeding off of the success of its predecessor. That is what has occurred here, and I couldn't be any more disappointed with the results.

When I try to imagine what they could do to make a fantastic sequel, I see many possibilities. Something as simple as more of the same, remixing more of Chopin's compositions into more tracks, would have been perfectly acceptable. Teaming up with other well known musicians like Beethoven or Bach and remixing their music would have been great as well. If the premise isn't broken, then you shouldn't try to fix it. Forever Entertainment has already proven that they are more than capable of doing any of those things, so my expectations were high for the next game in this franchise.

Unfortunately, that is not the direction the developers took with this sequel. All of the tracks in this game are completely original, and instead of matching the style of a particular country, they match the style of famous musician. For example, a couple of the characters you come across are parody versions of Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. Not a terrible idea, but the original music fails to be catchy, fun to play, and in some cases, even tolerable to listen to. As I have stated in the past, rhythm games are only as good as the music they include, which makes this game absolutely terrible.

Taking Chopin's work out of the franchise entirely just doesn't make sense to me. Remixing his compositions to fit the style of these particular musicians would have been easy enough, and it would have been interesting to hear Lady Gaga's rendition of Raindrops. Without his music, this game just feels uninspired, and it becomes a chore to even finish it.

To be fair, the rest of this game hasn't changed a bit. The gameplay is exactly the same, the art style hasn't changed, the story is just as nonsensical, and the voice acting is just as stroke inducing as in Resurrection of Music. There are no surprises here.

It's a shame that the developers forgot what made the first game so special. Maybe the third game in the franchise will return it to its roots, but I will be researching it first before wasting money on another sequel.

With over 230 compositions under his belt, Frederic Chopin was one of the world's leading musicians in the 1800's. He's been referenced and even starred in multiple video games in the past, and Resurrection of Music is the latest in that trend. It's probably the best fit, being a rhythm game full of imagination and heart. This is an easy recommendation to anyone who enjoys music.

In Frederic: RoM you play as Chopin himself, recently raised from the dead, and musically battle other musicians across the globe. Armed with nothing but a magical piano, it is up to you to show that you are still relevant in an age of Auto Tuners, Synthesizers, and Pro Tools.

The soul of this game is in the music, which is fantastic. A selection of Chopin's own works are remixed to fit the theme of several countries as you fight for global domination. Forever Entertainment has shown great care and creativity in the construction of these songs. Frederic's compositions ring through beautifully, which is a testament to their ability, considering how easily they could have ruined these amazing pieces. Rhythm games are only as good as the music they include, and with so many of them asking the player to provide their own songs these days, it's nice to see a developer actually take the time to hand-craft original tracks. Each song is not only fun to play, but catchy, enjoyable, and memorable as well. The soundtrack comes with the game when you purchase it through Steam, making the price tag all the more worth it.

The gameplay is easy to pick up if you've ever played a rhythm game before. Hit the keys when the notes pass over them. The closer to accurate the timing, the more points you receive. Once you get a combo going, you can pick up bonus points for hitting random keys on the keyboard, and even utilize a musical attack to mess with your opponents. While it's not very deep, it's a blast to play, and you'll feel like a true pianist as you do. Who doesn't want to feel like Chopin?

While you duke it out with these other musicians, colorful and silly animations play out in front of you, themed to the country, just like the music. They can be very distracting, adding to the difficulty of the duels, but are entertaining in their own right. Sometimes the caricatures and parodies can border on offensive, but they are all in good fun, and people are too easily offended these days anyway.

There is a story here that plays out in animated scenes in-between battles, but it is told horrendously with some of the worst voice acting you'll ever experience in this lifetime. That being said, this is a rhythm game, and who plays rhythm games for the story? You can easily skip these sequences and you won't miss anything important.

What else is there to say? Frederic: RoM is a fantastic experience that should not be missed. There is a sequel called Frederic: Evil Strikes Back, so be sure to check out my review on that game as well. If you enjoy this game, and want to learn more about Chopin, be sure to check out a game called Eternal Sonata, or Trusty Bell depending on your region. You won't be disappointed.

Contrast is a 3D puzzle\platformer that takes place in a world full of magic, cabaret singers, and burlesque shows. It utilizes a 1920's 'French Noir Film' art style that is unlike any other game I've played. The character design is beautiful, the voice acting is amazing, and the jazzy soundtrack fits the world perfectly. I can't stress enough how much I love the look and feel of this game. Yet, I can't recommend it, which is particularly disappointing considering how much there is to like here.

You play as Dawn, a woman trapped between the worlds of light and darkness, and who cannot be seen by anyone except for a little girl named Didi. Didi's parents have broken up, and with the father out of the picture, her mother works at a nightclub to pay the bills. This, of course, means nobody is watching the little demon-spawn and it's up to Dawn to keep her out of trouble. Easier said than done, since she insists on roaming around the city at all hours of the night, refusing to listen to reason, and all you can do is enable her.

The entire game revolves around a shift mechanic that allows you to become a shadow, an ability you will need to solve puzzles and progress through the game. Adjusting light sources to cast shadows to interact with is this game's bread and butter, and you'll be doing a lot of it.

The problems with Contrast start almost immediately. While the puzzle mechanics are unique and interesting, they are a bit buggy, and simple platforming can be difficult with controls that don't feel tight or responsive. Dawn has a tendency to get stuck in the environment and other shadows as well. There are even a couple of places where dropping an object in the wrong spot could result in the player not being able to progress further, forcing them to load the last checkpoint.

Once the game defines the parameters on the first couple of puzzles, it doesn't change them up much and they can become repetitive fast, which really shouldn't happen in a game this short. Which brings me to the biggest issue Contrast faces. The entire game can be completed in under 3 hours, and the ending is exceedingly abrupt. All of these issues combined leaves me with a feeling that the game is unfinished. Almost as if Compulsion Games ran out of money for the title half-way through development. Obviously, I do not have firsthand knowledge that this is the case, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm playing an Early Access game, and not a full release.

Altogether, Contrast is a game that should have been a one-of-a-kind, beautiful experience. When a bad idea becomes a bad game, it's expected, but when something that starts off this amazing falls flat, it's all the more frustrating. I expected better, as did most gamers, and in the future I hope Compulsion learns from their mistakes, and releases games that shows us all what they're really capable of.

The year is 1991, Another World is developed for the Amiga and Atari ST, and the platform\adventure genre is forever changed. 20 years later, Another World is still considered one of the greatest Amiga games of all time, and it's influence can be seen in games released today. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of experiencing this title in the past two decades, then you owe it to yourself as a gamer to do so as soon as possible.

Using vector graphics to produce in-game cinematics that tell a minimalistic story of a scientist who is transported to, you guessed it, Another World, you are forced to try and survive in this harsh and unforgiving environment. While the title was brutally challenging, it provided one of the first truely interactive cinematic experiences. You can feel this game's legacy in franchises like Uncharted and Heavy Rain.

The 20th Anniversary release of this masterpiece brings it to a new generation of gamers with the added features we take for granted, such as checkpoints and achievments, while keeping it the same game we know and love. You can play the game in the original resolution, or play with upgraded graphics. The new graphics don't hurt the original either, as they keep to the same art style we remember. The checkpoints are useful in that we don't have to finish the game in one sitting like we used to, (though alot of us know this game well enough that it wouldn't take very long). The achievments are great for pointing out things you might not have known about the game, and this version also comes with a host of bonus items, like the ROM of the Amiga version, a behind the scenes video, artwork, and soundtrack.

I honestly can't think of anything negative to say about this game. It's well worth the money, even if you've purchased one or more of the dozens of ports that have released in the past, thanks to a plethora of new features and bonus content. Playing Another World yet again brought memories of a simpler time flooding back, and I never grow tired of exploring this alien planet. Maybe in another ten years someone will release the first person, virtual reality re-re-re-re-remake, and I'll be buying and playing it, happily.

How do I write a review about a game that was developed in the name of charity and stay objective. It's difficult to say the least, yet I find it difficult to recommend this to anyone unless you want to donate and it's on sale.

First of all, if I had to describe what this was, I would be more likely to call it an interactive art exhibit. The graphics and color choices are gorgeous of course, but all you do is walk on a beach, follow butterflies to items, spin the item until you locate another butterfly, then click on said butterfly, rinse, repeat.

It was designed to be experienced, not played or beaten, and the subject matter is supposed to illicit an emotional response from the user. Unfortunately, I don't think that subject matter was conveyed properly for it's intended results.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the discription on the store page, it would be hard for me discern the message this game is trying to convey. The idea is that each item you locate belonged to a victim of the Japanese Tsunami, however the game gives you no indication of this. After each item is located, the tide goes out a bit to uncover the next, maybe this was an artistic decision on the devloper's part to convey something deep. Locating the lost artifacts pushes the Tsunami back, acknowledging the victim's loss undoes the damage of the Tsunami, something like that? Maybe it's up to the player to discern for themselves how to interpert this. The focus of the game doesn't become clear until you locate the butterfly on the last item, which takes about 10 minutes from starting the game, if that. After which some text appears on the screen explaining the damage the Tsunami had done in Japan, then the credits roll.

I feel terrible about not recommending this game due to the nature of the title. How can you say no when a percentage of the profits go to the Tsunami Relief Fund? I want to make it perfectly clear that I in no way disagree with the game's message, and support the developers for donating to the charity through this title, I just disagree with it's design. The message could have been conveyed in a more understandable and focused way. As I played I knew what this title was trying to do, I just never felt that it accomplished it's task, and that's the only reason I couldn't recommend it.

Let this be a lesson to developers everywhere. Wanting to create a game to help educate the world of a foreign cataclysmic natural disaster, and to donate to a charity, is not enough. That game must be worth the time of the people donating, and more importantly, the game must make it's message clear. Otherwise people who wish to donate can just do it manually through the charity's website.

Thank you Space Budgie for developing this title and choosing to help out of the kindness of your hearts. I'm sure families all over Japan praise your work and thank you for your time. I wish more developers would put their talents to good use by creating things like this in the name of charity. Please don't take the fact that I'm not recommending this game as a personal attack in anyway, or a stance against your message. Don't ever stop creating and helping humanity the best way developers can. Your work is appreciated, maybe even more than you know. However, as a reviewer, I have to be honest, even though in cases like this one, I wish I didn't.

If you wish to donate to the Japanese Tsunami Relief Fund and other charities that the proceeds of this game are going towards without purchasing this game, here are some links.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund[www.globalgiving.org]
Aid For Japan[www.aidforjapan.org.uk]
People and Skills for Disaster Relief[www.redr.org.uk]